THE CONTEST: TELL YOUR STORYWhat theme in The Giver relates to you personally, your community, your goals, or other aspects of your life? You can identify a theme from the book, the movie, the trailer, or a synopsis of the book or movie. You can tell your story in one of three ways:• Photography Entry: 100 words or less, complemented by one original photo• Illustration Entry: 100 words or less, complemented by one original illustration• Written Entry: 250 words or less in an essay, poem, song lyrics, haiku, or other writingContestants will be judged in two grade ranges, 7 through 9 and 10 through 12, for each of the three contest categories.VOTE NOW FOR YOUR FAVORITE ENTRY!Ringling College Creative AwardsEntry Deadline: February 15, 2015Open to U.S. Students in Grades 7-12

I love bragging about my former students! It is a delight and pleasure to see and learn from them after they graduate and move on to exciting careers. Dan Ricardelli is an designer at the architect firm Bergmeyer and Associates. Dan is busy completing his required hours as a designer and taking his exams and will become a registered architect in the near future. Bergmeyer graciously hosted a 20+ architecture and design students to visit his firm and learn about his career as an architect.

Thank you so much to Dan and Bergmeyer and Associates for this wonderful educational day!

Dan gave a tour to the students of the resource library at Bergmeyer

Dan gave a wonderful presentation explaining his path from Burlington High School to Northeastern University and then to his current job.

Alumni Artist Day 2015Report by George RatkevichThanks go out to all the alumni who showed up for our seventh annual Alumni Artist Day. On Friday, January 9, 2015, the Burlington High School Art Department hosted the event from 7:30 am until 2 pm. For the past seven years, the Burlington High School Art Department has welcomed back former students to discuss their careers as artists. Alumni in college talked about their experiences at art school and shared their portfolios, senior college students talked about how they were preparing to enter the workforce, and alumni who are working as designers, artists, and architects shared their experiences and day-to-day activities at their jobs.All the high school’s art students attended the event during their art periods. They learned about careers in the arts and had a chance to ask questions of the alumni. As often happens at the event, in addition to connecting alumni with current students, this year’s Alumni Artist Day brought opportunities for alumni to network.

Christoforo Magliozzi (BHS Class of 2007), Principal Researcher and Project Coordinator at the metaLAB at Harvard University, is also a director, cinematographer, and editor. Cris showed his documentary film, Cold Storage. Cold Storage will premiere locally alongside ( “in dialogue with”) French director Alan Resnais’ 1956 documentary, All the World’s Memory, which served as an inspiration and from which much of the narration in Chris’ film is derived. The film will premiere on February 2 in Piper Auditorium at Harvard University, but our students were treated to a first glimpse. The premiere at Harvard will also debut its accompanying interactive web-based media archive as well. The premiere is being held in conjunction with an exhibition called Icons of Knowledge at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, which looks at the history of national library buildings through models, murals, and drawings. Students asked about Chris’ previous experience at the White House, where he served on a film crew. Chris’ work can be viewed at cristoforomagliozzi.com and at metalab.harvard.edu.

Chris Coe (BHS Class of 2013) spoke to Burlington students several times throughout the day, sharing his experiences as a freelance photographer and as a sophomore at Rochester Institute of Technology, where his focus is advertising photography. His portfolio can be viewed at chriscoephoto.com. Chris assured us that he would be attending every Alumni Artist Day for the next thirty years.

Other presenters at the event included: Dan Barrera (BHS Class of 2013), a sophomore at Becker College focusing on Interactive Media and Game Design;

Elizabeth Johnson, a senior at Framingham State studying Fashion Merchandising;

Daniel Fitzpatrick (BHS Class of 2003), a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design working as the User Experience Developer at Smashfly Technologies;

Gamuchirai Dhliwayo (BHS Class of 2013), in her sophomore year at Massachusetts College of Art and Design majoring in Graphic Design;

Anesu Dhliwayo, a graduate of the Boston Architectural College. She is a designer at LAB (labarchitecturegroup.com) who is working toward becoming a registered architect;

Jen Vachon, a graduate of Syracuse University working in architectural design at Isgenuity,

Michael Guleserian, a freshman at Lasell College majoring in graphic design and working as a freelance graphic designer of logos

Marissa Cote (BHS Class of 2013), who shared the experiences of her sophomore year at School of the Art Institute of Technology (SAIC)

The common thread throughout the day was the gratitude that the alumni had for Burlington High School and all that the art department has to offer. Alumni told the current students numerous times " you are so fortunate to have the resources that you have in the BHS Art Department!".

This Friday, January 9, 2015, the Burlington High School Art Department will host its seventh annual Alumni Artist Day from 7:30 am until 2 pm.

I have organized this event for the past six years, in which we've welcomed back former students to discuss their careers as artists. Alumni who have recently graduated talk about their first year at art school, senior college students who are preparing to enter the workforce share their portfolios, and alumni who are working as designers and artists share their experiences and day-to-day activities at their jobs.

Current art students have a chance to see and ask questions of the alumni and they're able to learn about art careers directly from the artists in those positions. In addition to connecting alumni with current students, Alumni Artist Day is an event that has connected alumni to one another.

Ken Gordon, Massachusetts state representative for the 21st Middlesex District, will be here from 9:30-11am.